Janice's profilefour against onePhotosBlogListsMore  |  Tools Help |
|
September 27 ahhhToday, I had the honor of interpreting for a former student. The family thought to call me to interpret a family event. The young man in question was quite a character in high school. Very, very smart and has a personality you cannot help but admire and feel comfortable with him. The event itself honored someone who had lived a long life that touched many people. She had lived as all of us aspire to, and it does not surprise me that this fine young man is related to such a person. The service was lovely, befitting the honoree. All of the folks there are kind, wonderful people. How lucky am I that the family thought enough of me to give me a call. This young man is such a great person. He has graduated law school, passed the barr and recently worked for a government agency in Washington, D.C. Now he is thinking of either teaching or possibly going into educational law. (or both) What got me more though today, is what neat people the entire family is. There is no distinction between step brother, brother and so on. Family is family. At one point the young man thanked me for coming and complimented my interpreting skills. While this is always flattering it is not nessary. It was a joy to see him, his family and have a chance to catch up. How cool is life?! September 20 interviewThe past month or so, I have been doing searches, looking for any job listings for interpreters. There have been a lot in other areas of the country and only a few near the Northeast. I got an email about two weeks ago saying that a new video relay service will be coming to the Philadelphia area. There is another agency about 20 minutes away from my house that only recently started offering sign language interpreting in addition to the spoken language interpreting services they offer. Who would have guessed? So, the new vrs is opening on October 22. I haven't interviewed in about 15 years. Tuesday I will be going to meet the interpreter recruiter at about 4:30. If you know me, you know I sort of freak out at changes. This one is no different. Even though I have known about the need to look for a new jobfor a long time, it is way different when it all has to start. Still, I have finally learned that even huge upheavals usually end up changing for the better. Every time we moved when I was married, the whole splitting up thing.... things always worked out pretty well... eventually. I need to print out the application and fill it out and I need to get my resume done. Eeek. It will be interesting to see what they have to tell me on Tuesday about this company. The new office will be very close to a train that goes into the city. About the only drawback I can see right now is Phila has about a 3.76% wage tax. I will need to figure that in when I am weighing my options. The kids and I are all good. The situation with Jamie's room-mate is still going on. Hopefully he will understand soon that he needs to chill a little bit. And learn how to take care of himself. She seems more comfortable about everything now, which is great. I might try to zoon out there tomorrow. Eddie is Eddie. He got himself a Saturday detention his second day back at regular school. (he changed from FT tech school to reg school everyday and tech school everyday) He seemed pretty adamant about not really feeling that sorry about the whole thing. A teacher was basically acting like a *&^%$^&, and Eddie spouted off at him. Hope getting up early on a Saturday will be worth it to him. On another note, I keep trying to be nice to his girlfriend and give her the benefit of the doubt. She has walked into my house, and wlaked right past me without saying hello. I never would have done that when I was 16. Last night, she wasn't feeling well. Ok, but at least she said hello this time. Things felt really strained the whole time she was around. Without asking a thing, she picks up a pack of Benadryl quick dissolve strips I have for emergency and just takes one. Huh? I knwo she was feeling crappy but what?? Much to do today! September 17 zoom!September is flying by!! It's really surprising me. The heat has gone done a bit, and there is a touch of Fall in the air. As the temperature goes down, the urgency I feel to get a new water heater is going up! During the summer, it's not that bad to take an only slightly warm or cool shower. I've had to make myself get into the shower the past few days. Gotta buck up and spend the dough. Work is pretty good. We have no subs as usual. There was one last year who needed money enough to work around lack of notice (even when we call well ahead of time) and so forth and it was heaven to have a sub. Apparently, she has gotten steady employment. Our other sub works freelance quite a bit and is rarely available. So... one of my co-workers is out today and tomorrow. Today wasn't too bad - there was one student out. Tomorrow is going to be a longggggggg day for me. The only time I wont be out interpreting is when the students are in with the teacher of the deaf. Oh, gee.... I cannot wait. Grrr. Eddie has a real license now. He had passed the test back on August 22, but the computers there went down right after they took his picture. So, he was walking around with a photo card for a while. He seemed pretty happy to get the real thing. Jamie has been going through some drama with a new room-mate. It's kind of long and complicated. The kiddo has a lot of issues. Hopefully, the kids are well on their way to working it out. Also, there was an explosive found in a parking garage about 4 blocks from her apartment. Not a nice thing. There was a scare yesterday as well. Ugh.... that's my baby! Ah well, need to go do a few things before I start running out of energy. September 14 quiet Very quiet here today. Colleen is down at her boyfriend's house and Eddie is at a buddy's. I slept in a bit since SNL had its season premier last night. Tina Fey did a great Sarah Palin. Haven't watched SNL in a while. I guess it's alright, though I have to say I liked it better "back in the day". I think this was our first full week at work. Everyone always gets a little zombie-ish about the first two weeks. Just takes a littl while to get used to the new schedule. We had 2 teachers out - one had had a heart attack during the summer. He looked pretty good at the inservices. It was good to see him. When I mentioned possibly calling him over the weekend, he made a crack along the lines of, "Oh sure, now that you think I'm gonna die...." Well, that made me laugh and let me know he's well on his way to recovering. Even quit smoking, which is amazing - he was a heavy chain smoker before. Another teacher has a relapse of melanoma. She had been in stage 3-4 when they first found it about 4 years ago. It was pretty doggone scary then. Can't even imagine being her - she has pretty young kids. She's in her late 30s. Man, cancer sucks. She had tried to start the school year but just couldn't get through a whole day. Please keep her in you thoughts and prayers. Here things are pretty good. Eddie decided about Tuesday or so that he wants to go back to going to Tech part time. At first I was really freaking out - his job/workstudy is a sweet deal and I want him to do whatever is best for his education. A lot of his reasons are very sound. After I spoke to his shop teacher, I felt a lot better. So, tomorrow he goes back to reg school part of the day, Tech part of the day. His boss is being very flexible about all of it. Even offered Eddie an advance to help him finally get a car. It'll all work out. I've gotten offers for PT "sidework" from a new company about 20 minutes from here. They provide spoken language services as well as sign language interpreting. There will also be an open house for a new video relay service coming to the Philadelphia area. With all of this happening, I am feeling better about the end of the school year. It looks like I will have more options than I had imagined. Yay!!!! It's a big relief. There will still be some stress making the decision and then the transition. At least now it does not look nearly as bleak. September 09 Whatsamatter with kids? Sure, in my heart I know that most kids are pretty much not any worse then we were when we were kids. We just have selective memory and saw it from a much different perspective at the time. Even after four kids, I should be used to the ups and downs of raising/rearing teens. You would think so, but every so often it gets to me. Is it really so hard to get up every morning, especially when you're doing something you really like and school is fairly easy this year? Apparently it is, because darlin' Eddie cannot/will not get up until he has had the door knocked on 2x and a phone in his room called 2x and an alarm clock. Then when he does finally get up, there's all kinds of noises and grumbling. It's just enough for me to feel really mad by the time I go out the door. He' s a very decent kid. Has a good idea what he wants to do after high school and basically stays out of trouble. This kind of crap just gets to me. That and a comment about "only" giving him $2.00 for lunch. (I gave him $5 yesterday, so he should have plenty with the change from that) I love him dearly, and that's a very good thing. Other than that things are pretty good. Work is falling into a routine. We're all happy and healthy here so, what else can I ask for? September 07 ahh The first week went well. We were finally hooked up to the network within the school by Weds or Thurs. Being on the internet is great for schools - an all school email can be sent out and everyone gets the update. However, should something in the system malfunction, someone may be left out. I'm pretty used to my schdule now, but there are a few days per cycle where it is very light. Not really complaining, just it's kind of boring. What it is taking up a lot of my time right now is reading. There is Into the Wild, which is the summer reading pick for our seniors this year. I can usually pound out a book quickly. I've had the book since the end of August or beginning of July. I just cannot read more than a page or two at a time. Yesterday, I read Sarah. As in Abrham from the bible's Sahrah. I enjoyed that one alot. (guess so if I read it in one day!) Today we're having the family birthdays for July and August. Am looking forward to it but not in some ways. Then I have to drive Jamie back to school. That's not so terrible. We always get a good talk in. Have to get moving! September 03 getting back Well, we are two days into the school year and so far, things look pretty good. We have a great outlook on the year... wanting to go out on a positive note. The kids are all good and seem to be happy to be back. (well, as happy as teens get to be back in school!) It's great seeing them as well as staff we have worked with in the past and meeting new faces. We are being encouraged..... well - strongly advised - to not post things on blogs and so forth, so my sharing this year will be very limited. It's a shame.... it was a good outlet for me, I was always very careful about identifying info and I thought it gave the general public food for thought. Unless you are directly involved with education, and special ed especially it is difficult to know what is going on. I understand the concerns behind such policies and directives. Hiding everything is usually a bad idea though. For the most part I am enjoying getting back into the swing of things. A few little glitches - the school upgraded technology throughout the building, but since we are basically an outside agency within, they did not have the local administrator password for us and could not have us connected to the internet. That was cumbersome at best. We felt a bit disconnected from the whole school until yesterday. After what felt like 100 calls, one of the district tech guys came out for the 2nd time and got it figured out. Yay! I'm still not finished the summer reading book for 12th grade.... it's just not hooking me. Other than that, just the usual beginning of the year stuff. Freshman not knowing where to meet their buses at the end of the day. I told them there are usually in the same place where they dropped off in the morning. (surprisingly enough I do not have 20- 30 bus locations memorized!) It's good to be working. September 01 1st student day Tomorrow is our first day with students!!!! Yay! It will be nice to see them all again, and I am looking forward to my classes. I miss the goobers. I hope they all had a great summer. My classes (from what I remember) are grad project/gym, sometimes Biology, Literature and Writing and Creative writing. A new year is always something to look forward to. We're doing everything we can to make this the best year possible. For now, I need to go get my clothes ready, pack my lunch and hopefully get our "window" done. (we have a storage closet basically for a classroom, so I drew a window scene to put on one of the walls. It was a hit) We'll see. I'm running out of day! |
|
|
